Royal Thimphu College 2 December, 2009 - When the eight students from Wheaton college, USA, join the royal Thimphu college (RTC) in August 2010, they will also study Dzongkha, besides other academic courses.
The students exchange programme is a part of the academic partnership agreement that was signed yesterday in Thimphu, between Bhutan’s first private college, the five-month-old RTC, and the 175-year-old Wheaton college in Norton, Massachusetts, USA.
“While we don’t expect them to become proficient, we hope it’ll help them to develop a better understanding in appreciating the culture in Bhutan,” said the dean of the center for global education, Wheaton college, Dr Alfredo Varela, at the signing. “Wheaton college is very proud to have this relationship.”
The chief executive of RTC, Tenzing Yonten, said that the academic partnership between the two colleges hopes to set an example in Bhutan. “This will have a lot of implications to the students in RTC and to the education system in Bhutan because, from what I know, we don’t have any foreign students in any of the government colleges in Bhutan. So, by opening the doors here, we’re setting an example,” he said.
He said the college has been successful in getting foreign faculty and are now extending to students to have a lot more diversity in the student body. The Wheaton students will live in the RTC campus with RTC students and also do a semester long internship either with an NGO or a business organisation of their choice.
By 2010, the college plans to have around eight percent of the student body as foreign students and up to 15 percent by 2020. RTC opened with 317 students in July this year.
As part of the agreement, a three and half day faculty workshop on innovations in curriculum and pedagogy began today in RTC. One of the Wheaton faculty members, Dr Hyun Kim, said that, among others, they would discuss interactive and critical education, and students’ participation. “We have also devoted a day to running a seminar, like the kinds and ways to begin a seminar and the concrete ways to generate ideas and participation,” said Dr Hyun Kim.
A special full semester academic module, called ‘Contemporary Bhutan Culture and Society,’ has also been developed for the Wheaton students. A senior advisor and professor of Business in RTC, Dr Douglas F Schofield, said that it’s a broad course that covers various topics in Bhutan. “We’re trying to have a number of speakers from Thimphu to talk on what’s happening in the country,” he said. “So it’ll be different, a course which will have dozens of teachers and not just one.”
By Sonam Pelden
